| Summary: | <p>Video games is one of the most popular forms of entertainment, and there are nearly 3 billion
video game players in the world. The popularity of video games has caused a heated
discussion about their influence on players’ well-being. Many negative impacts on mental
and physical health have been found when problematic video game use or gaming disorder
has been reported. However, some studies ignored the motivation for gaming when exploring
the relationship between playing video games and well-being. Self-determination theory
(SDT) proposes that people’s behaviours are driven by three basic phycological needs,
autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Relatedness, or being connected with other people,
can be achieved through social video game play, especially as the multiplayer online video
games community is getting larger.</p>
<p>Therefore, this study explores the role of social video game play and the need for
relatedness in gaming and examined whether it influenced one’s well-being and life
satisfaction by analysing three waves of self-reported well-being and motivation data of
87,321 video game players and their game-behaviours data. Results provided evidence that
social gamers and gamers with higher relatedness satisfaction scores experienced higher
affective well-being and general life satisfaction. It was also found that the effects of social
gaming and relatedness on affective well-being were stronger among female players. No
moderation effect of gender was found in life satisfaction. This study reveals that playing
video games with others and fulfilling social needs are beneficial to one’s well-being,
stressing the importance of not only behaviours but also psychological satisfaction in video
game studies.</p>
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